Archives

In the video room historical videos are screened on themes such as ‘The March for Hope and Protest’, ‘Roccamena and the fight for the Garcia Dam’, the earthquake, shantytowns and many more…

The collection of the Belìce/EpiCentre of Living Memory was put together thanks to all the documents of the ‘Danilo Dolci’ historical archive, which was officially acknowledged thanks to a law decree (ref. n. 68/34.22.07/1.6, of January 4, 2008) of the Ministry for Cultural Activities. It includes 2,300 volumes and has been set up at the library of the Centre for Social and Economic Research in Southern Italy (CRESM). The archive has been acknowledged as being of ‘remarkable historical interest’ by the Superintendence for Archives of Sicily Region, since valuable documents are kept there about the Study and Initiative Centre to Promote Full Employment in Western Sicily, founded by Danilo Dolci and Lorenzo Barbera.

Danilo Dolci was born in Istria and moved to Sicily in 1952; he was a sociologist and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times. The Study and Initiative Centre, and Dolci in particular, gained international recognition thanks to the people’s initiatives they promoted from 1958 to 1968 to promote development in the Belìce Valley, such as the construction of the Jato and Garcia dams. Dolci led a non-violent fight against underdevelopment, unveiled and reported the connections between the Mafia and politics, and he was persecuted and taken to Court. In addition to the documents of the ‘Danilo Dolci’ historical archive, the permanent collection includes sets of photographs by Toni Nicolini, Franco Scafidi, Bruna Amico, Antonia Giusino, Ezio Ferreri, and Gabriella Ebano. There are also thirty video interviews by Rossella Schillaci, an author and documentary director, about the characters who made the history of the Valley through their direct encounter and militancy with Danilo Dolci and Lorenzo Barbera. The interviews cover also the period of the disastrous earthquake of 1968 and the reconstruction that followed.

In our Bookshop you’ll find books and other publications about Sicily, Culture, social development and much more!

“Now I know that my voice is the voice of all sensible Sicilians, all sensible Italians, all sensible citizens of the world. So I say: we cannot go on like that; the old world is dead. (…) We must show the utmost gratitude and respect to all the people who struggled and reflected before us to make the world more civilised and to improve our living conditions. Still, we must realise that we need a new world.”
(Danilo Dolci, Saturday, March 11, 1967, at Piazza Kalsa in Palermo – Speech given at the end of the March for Hope and Protest)